travel show with mike corey. this week, on the travel show... i'm in argentina, exploring an amazing sunken town that's reemerged from under the water. then, i head to the country's spectacular iguazu falls. oh, my god! and in wales, wejoined a couple starting out on a pedal—powered adventure at sea, searching for a more sustainable future. we're kicking off this week in south america — argentina, to be precise — where early last year i went to explore one of the strangest places i had ever heard of. a town that had to be abandoned due to flooding back in the 1990s, but has since reemerged from beneath the water. you can find ghost towns all over the world, and as many different reasons why they could be abandoned, but i've heard epecuen is special because it is not abandoned — at least not completely. there's not much left... just some bricks. you can only guess what they used to be. this places is wild. there's a couple of tourists here, notjust us, but there's more cows than tourists. epecuen was built in the 19205, and at its peak was home to about 5,000 people. tourists came from all over argentina to take a therapeutic dip in its famous thermal bath. today, they come for very different reasons. former resident, viviana, leads tours around the remains of her hometown, explaining what happened here. in 1985, heavy rain and storms sealed epecuen�*s fate. a nearby dam ruptured and within weeks the town was flooded. for years and years, the water continued to rise, and by the early �*90s, everything you see here was completely submerged. then, just over a decade ago, the waters began to subside. and now tourists can walk these streets once again. hotel monterreal. oh, but look, though. this might look damaged, but, actually, it's not — it's completely encrusted in mineral salts from the water. the inside, not so great... i guess that's what a quarter of a century underwater does. for me, here, ijust see concrete, but foryou, you have memories here. but even when it was mostly underwater, it wasn't entirely abandoned. for over 25 years, a local legend called pablo novak lived on the outskirts. some recent health complications have meant that pablo has had to move out of his home and into a nearby nursing facility. that means epecuen�*s last resident has finally moved away, but pablo�*s memories of the town still live on. while epecuen may now be fully abandoned, what's left behind is a uniquely desolate, stunning landscape with a legacy that will never be forgotten. next, we're off to new zealand to visit the north island's largest rainforest. back in 2014, the government returned ownership of the land back to the local indigenous people who were now encouraging tourists to learn to interact with the forest on a spiritual level, rather than just think of it as a great place to take a hike and take some photos. the tuhoe tribe, which is my tribe, fought for 150 years to have land returned to the people, and they were eventually successful in 2014. what was formerly the national park area became te urewera, a living entity of its own, with all the rights of personhood. and i believe that it was the first of its kind in the world. a kaitiaki don't take over and control — a kaitiaki understands where they fit in, and are guided by nature and how to look after it. this tree that's supporting me, and the energy from it feels male. it's a few hundred years old. whatevertree, plant, that your eyes alight upon, there is that thing acknowledging you and saying hello. if you ignore them, thatjust means that you need more time. so, more time you spend in nature, the more you tune in, the better you develop your understanding of the language that she's speaking to you. people that i met when it was a national park often didn't know much about the tuhoe tribe, or our indigenous ancestry. children of the mist. the retreat was born out of the desire to have a place where people could stay in nature, enfolded in nature, where they could connect with nature and themselves. you are unplugged from the business of life and the distractions, actually, of life. i want people to realise that you don't need much to enjoy life, and to live. staying here strips back and takes you right back to the basics of what you need, what the body needs, what the spirit needs. still to come on the travel show... i get to experience the spectacle and sheer force of nature of the amazing iguazu falls here in argentina. and we meet the couple setting out on a sustainable journey at sea with the help of a little pedal power. so don't go away. this isn'tjust one waterfall, it's hundreds. iguazu is three times wider than niagara, and it's a marvel of nature right on the border between argentina and brazil. i've been wanting to see this water for my entire life. during the rainy season, every second up to 13 million litres of water spill over a series of precipices stretching 1.5 miles wide. well, the first time that i saw the waterfalls i cried. the falls are steeped in local legends — though some are more sinister than others. in the mythology, they believe that behind the waterfalls, especially behind the devil's throat, there is a giant snake living there, and they have a big respect about that. have you seen the giant snake? never, but i have seen the devil's throat, and i have a big respect about that. the devil's throat is one of the most spectacular sections of the falls. it's where a major portion of the iguazu river tumbles over, causing an effect similar to an ocean plunging into an abyss. wow! i've never seen anything like this before! 0ne waterfall, two, three, four, five, six, 20, 30, 100, all cascading down. the rush coming off this waterfall... laughs. you can feel it on your face and hands. this is an incredible wonder of nature. you have to come see this some time in your life. wow. next, we join the husband—and—wife team, jason and tammie, on an incredible zero—carbon adventure around wales. so far they have completed almost 400 miles over hills and valleys under their own steam. now, it's time for them to tackle the spectacular and sometimes precarious welsh coastline in a boat powered just by pedals. we are on a circumnavigation of wales using just human power, so we're biking, we're walking, we're canoeing, pack rafting and using a specially designed pedal—powered boat. moksha is an 8 metre by 1.5 metre boat made out of wood, that was designed and built back in the early �*90s to complete the first circumnavigation of the planet by human power, which is what i did, started off with a friend, and she's, like, almost a part of me. she's like part of my soul now, i've spent so much of my life in her. like i'm ever gonna wear this. i think for me, human power means being able to be more part of a community, and i think one of the most special things about our journey so far is the fact that we're going very slowly, we are meeting some amazing people that we would have never met. some of the most engaging encounters in terms of people and leading onto sustainability stories which is what we're interested in exploring here in wales, have come about because of human power. so we biked from greenfield dock up on the dee estuary, to hay—on—wye, then we hiked over the black mountains, used pack rafts down the river monnow to monmouth and then we've just biked the last 300 miles from monmouth to here, milford haven. so tomorrow we're going to be pedaling moksha, our pedal boat, out of the marina here, into the channel essentially, around the corner, around the pembrokeshire headlands and then around to fishguard, up cardigan bay, around by anglesey and back to where we started from, from greenfield dock there on the dee estuary. thank you! i can't deny that i am more apprehensive about this than crossing an ocean, which i have done in that pedal boat, several times. but this, going around the coast, you've got tides, you've got wind, you've got other vessels, there are so many other variables and that's what i'm...that�*s what i'm most nervous about. some pretty rough water coming up there. i'm very nervous, because when he gets nervous, it really does freak me out. oh my god! whirlpools? suspenseful music plays. 0w. what was that? 0k, can you see me? bring the... no, up, up! no, up! stop! dammit. bleep. yeah, i'm just shattered. absolutely shattered. you're very tough. i'm not in my comfort zone on the water, but honestly for me, it's telling the stories of the local heroes that are championing, you know, their local environments and the seals and the whales and they're out there and they're in the trenches every day working hard and they're fighting bureaucracy and i'm so excited to bring those stories to other people so that they can get help, and i'm really, really excited about that. we have heard about this amazing organisation called the sea watch foundation, and jason and i are super excited, we're going to get out on a boat to see if we can't find some dolphins and other sea life, so we're looking forward to it. katrin, what exactly is it that the sea watch foundation does? so, the sea watch foundation is a nation wide research charity, we study whales, dolphins and porpoises in the uk. 0ur flagship project is the cardigan bay monitoring project, which is the project that i lead, and we study the semi—resident population of bottlenose dolphins that we get around here and we look at how do they use their habitat and how many animals there are year after year. so today we're not actually on a surveying boat, we're on a tourism boat? yes. so, can you explain, is that a problem for the dolphins? well, it's a difficult situation. when we look at northern cardigan bay, where there's actually a lot less tourist boats, we have seen an impact of disturbance and that's mainly from recreational boat traffic. and we've seen an effect in the social structure of the dolphins there. so, down here, we have much smaller pods with longer—lasting bonds, whereas up north the animals are often in bigger groups but they have less long—lasting bonds between each other. you just... oh, god. just can't get away from it, can you? can we park on the flat part of the ocean from now on? this sounds ridiculous, but if i threw up and something eats it... i've had an ibuprofen and stuff today, i mean, ijust don't... retching. so sick... it's like being inside a washing machine. so, how was your night? it was ok... rolling... well, as soon as we get under way, the rolling will... it will be not this continual rolling. honestly, we make a good team, and it's funny because we fight about little things that you know, i think we can't even remember what we fought about. whoa! oh, god, ow! yeah, we do fight, but weirdly enough when we're out at sea or if we're on this expedition together... if we think we're gonna die, we're fine! why can't one thing be easy? just one? i suppose when the chips are down and when things are going really badly, that's when we come together and work really well together. thank you. you're welcome. tammie�*s cafe at sea. food waste is a huge problem. yeah. 40% of our food in this country is wasted so we're gonna go and find out how this local group is preventing food from going to landfill, so they pick up food from restaurants, from people's houses and a lot of it's not gone off, it'sjust gone past the best before date so then they make delicious food and we are tired of eating brown food on this boat, so this is going to be great, eating food other than our own cooking. it's reallyjust a great concept because they're feeding their local community and then anything that they can't use actually goes into a compost bin, so it is literally a complete circular economy with food that would be otherwise wasted. that's delicious! well, that's all for this week. but coming up next week... what we're trying to do here is get around this headland before the tide turns against us, but it looks like the tide has already turned. we're back with tammie and jason as they continue their voyage but with the weather closing in, will they get to their final port of call or have to abandon their mission? you're not going to want to miss it. but until then, from me, mike corey and the rest of the team here, at iguazu falls in argentina, it's goodbye. hello there. it will be another warm day in the offing for many with spells of sunshine once the early mist and patchy, dense fog clears away. however, further north we do have a different complexion to the weather for the day ahead. some cloudy skies with some rain, heavy to start and the risk of an autumnal galesjust on cue for the autumn equinox. that's all being brought by this advancing area of clouds, it's a low pressure system. we do have a weaker weather front ahead of it. so in contrast, it will be quite a mild start in the north while we could see a little bit chilly down to seven or eight in the south. it is here we will see the best of the sunshine once that mist and fog clears away, particularly for the far south. a little bit more cloud for england and wales and the odd spot of drizzle first thing but that clears away. this is the main rain player through the day, the northwest highlands and the islands initially it will see it turn a little bit lighter as it pushes southward, some brightness ahead of it and some brighter weather with showers following behind. but a breezy day even in the south as well. and the winds to escalate towards the evening. so temperature wise, a cooler day, we are into cooler air behind that weather front but as recent days, 22 to possibly even 23 in the sunnier spots in the south and east. through the evening overnight look at those showers packing in, the winds really strengthen, there is a risk of gales across the far north and west and a cooler feel. while further south our weather front starts to introduce a bit more cloud. so it will be milder here as we start our thursday morning. a little bit of mistiness around and the odd patch of fog we still got that high—pressure close by. but you can see that deep area of low pressure whisking away toward scandinavia behind it isjust introducing that cooler airfor a time. but it is just a brief incursion of chilly air for the far north. i think you will notice a temperature dip a little bit in southern areas as well with some cloud welcome to bbc news, i'm david eades — our top stories. a 5.8 magnitude earthquake strikes southern australia. it's felt in melbourne, canberra and sydney. president biden promises a new era of �*relentless diplomacy�* instead of �*relentless war�* — as he delivers his first presidential address to the un general assembly. we will stand up for our allies and ourfriends and oppose attempts by stronger countries that dominate weaker ones, but we�*re not seeking — i�*ll say it again — we are not seeking a new cold war. and in the canary islands, another village on la palma is evacuated as the volcano continues on its destructive path. there is ash